steve_sharf1 Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 I just purchased an Epson 3800. I will shortly be purchacing a new computer. Iam a long time PC user and I am considering a number of options includingconverting to an Apple such as a fast Mac Pro, or imac with 24" monitor.What are your dream set-ups? I am a long time wet darkroom guy converting todigital. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uhooru Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Would luv a full blown Mac Pro, but its really overkill. The iMac 24" is a sweet machine and does all I need for fairly intensive photo use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan_n1 Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 There's no such "dream computer"... because that "dream" will be broken very soon, as soon as you get the computer home... better buy a computer that answer your needs.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterlyons Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 I don't believe you'd regret the Mac Pro. I got one myself a few months ago. But the part that I'm most thrilled with is the 30" monitor. Nothing compares to seeing everything so large! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patricklavoie Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Not my dream because i have expensive taste : ) But my setup right now as a professional photoretoucher, meaning ALL my income come from photoretouching; is as follow; 1_Mac Pro 2.66 ghz 2_4 gig of RAM 3_RAID 0 for disk 1 & 2 = 500gig, i got a speed boost to work but it is dangerous so... 4_disk #3 is 250gig for backup purpose everyday, i use Intego Personal backup 5_160 gig firewire 800 LACIE, a weekly backup of my work that i leave the office with for the weekend. 6_2x 23inch Apple Cinema Display brand new. 7_2x internal 16x DVD burner, one with Lightscribe to burn image on my client DVD, add a touch of pro to my work 8_Wacom Graphire 6x8 for all my computer work; word, invoice internet, and indeed my retouching. no mouse anymore for the past 5 years. 9_Monaco Optix to calibrate every month my 2 screen 10_Epson 4800 PhotoBlack, all my print on Ilford Smooth Pearl. 11_Klipsch 5.1 speaker to ear my music like i love too : ) 12_APC battery backup 1200 for security, give me 20min of backup. voila! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_sharf1 Posted February 23, 2007 Author Share Posted February 23, 2007 Patrick: Thats quite the dream. If you were to make it more realistic, more a reasonable wish list, what would you want? 4 gb of memory seems alot for photoshop cs2 and working 1 print at a time is it not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godfrey Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 What I use is an Apple Power Macintosh G5 system with 2.0Ghz DP, 3G RAM installed, and twin, fast 500G internal drives. An Apple Cinema Display 23", the one up from the bottom graphics card offered, a Bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse, and an Intuos 3 6x9 inch graphics tablet complete the hardware setup for the base system. Backup and archiving goes to a pair of FireWire 500G hard drives. Printer is currently an Epson R2400, with an eye to the R3800 or R4800 in the future. I'm running Photoshop CS2 and Lightroom presently. This system proves very capable for my photographic work. It's a bit more than I need but has room for growth. Were I buying a new system right now, I'd buy almost exactly the same thing modulo a Mac Pro cpu rather than the Power Mac G5. The twin fast internal drives, one used almost exclusively as a scratch drive for Photoshop CS2, make for a bigger improvement in performance than bumping up cpu speed for the PowerPC family machines. That's my reservation on buying an iMac ... only one internal drive, and only a FireWire 800 port to connect a scratch drive with. It's just not as flexible a setup as the tower box, which can be loaded up with a LOT more RAM if you find you need it for whatever reason. Photoshop CS2 can take advantage of up to 2G RAM, which leaves another G of RAM for other applications to make use of with minimal paging, and the big fast drive with lots of free space on it makes things run faster and smoother as well. (I keep my startup drive with at least 30% free space... it helps a lot on performance when I need to batch-render a hundred photos into a final rendering.) Godfrey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_sharf1 Posted February 23, 2007 Author Share Posted February 23, 2007 Godfrey: I thought that CS2 could use up to 3gb of memory, I guess I'm wrong. Maybe CS3 will. Another point... Is that a Leica M8 in your bio photo? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_sharf1 Posted February 23, 2007 Author Share Posted February 23, 2007 I have not noticed anyones choices including PC's ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bwcombs Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 But Steve, this is discussing a PC. The Mac. The "Perfect Computer". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godfrey Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Hi Steve, CS2 might be able to use up to 3G of RAM on Mac OS X, but so far I've never seen it use more than about 2G when I have the Activity Monitor active and am pounding it pretty hard. So I'm not sure... The photo at http://www.gdgphoto.com/bio.html shows me using a Leica M6TTL, taken circa 2000-2001. I really should update that. I use primarily Pentax DSLR gear now. :-) Godfrey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patricklavoie Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Steve, it is my setup right now, so i found it pretty resonable : ) but a Imac 20-24 inch, max RAM, epson 3800, and a calibration device seem pretty good and affordable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godfrey Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Doh! I forgot the Eye One Display 2 calibration unit in my list... :-) G Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_sharf1 Posted February 23, 2007 Author Share Posted February 23, 2007 Patrick: I like the compactness of the imac but I dont like the limitations on expanding it... and yet the box of the mac pro is so huge as to make me concerned about space. I understand that they are quiet though. Godfrey: Yes a calibrator as well. I was considering the spyder. Some more input on these monitor calibrators would be very helpful as well. I would like to know how easy it is to calibrate the mac screens. I have heard that many PC LCD screens leak white light and cannot be properly calibrated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patricklavoie Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 what do you call limitation? 3 gig of RAM and 250 gig of hard drive with a dual layer superdrive and firewire 800, and airport extreme N...what do you need more? hard drive? just buy a external one : ) i dont see any limitation there. explain that part please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godfrey Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Steve, My colleagues in the graphics department at Apple all recommended I stay away from the ColorVision Spyder and recommended the Gretag-Macbeth (now Xrite) Eye One Display 2. That was several years ago and I have heard that the Spyder has been improved since, but I'm very satisfied with the Eye One Display 2 unit and software. The Monaco Optix system would be my second choice. Patrick, There's nothing wrong with the iMac 24" as an image processing workstation, but its expansion capabilities are limited, certainly by comparison to the Mac Pro ... 3G maximum RAM vs 16G, one internal hard drive vs four, six different video cards available, two optical drives, faster bus, faster processors, etc. The Mac Pro tower, like the PowerMac G5, is large and consumes a bit of space but it's quiet in operation and the ability to be expanded as needs grow are much better than any of the all-in-one systems. While I doubt I'll ever need to expand a G5 or Mac Pro tower to its full capacities, the ability to have a dual drive setup with a very fast internal SATA scratch disk is very rewarding when you are working with Photoshop. Godfrey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patricklavoie Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 im agree with you Godfrey, it just i keep earing the word limitation and you know like me that nobody will ever use 16gig of ram and max out everything else in is Mac before it get time to swicth to a newer model...i dont know anydoby in the graphic biseness that need a 20K$ computer tower : ) thats why i highly recommended the Imac for normal people, even for many pro photographer, depending of your nedds and $. Of course my choice would be a Mac Pro, but as you can see with my setup, i am far from the max , even if i am working professionaly with it everyday. why would someone need to add 6 pcixpress card, 16gig of RAM and 2terabite of hardrive? i lucky one with a lot of $ i presume : ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_sharf1 Posted February 23, 2007 Author Share Posted February 23, 2007 Patrick: Godfrey's response re. the limitations of the imac above are my concerns though your point re. the imac being good enough is well taken. Can either of you or anyone else let me know about the ease of calibrating the apple screens? Is it a no brainer every time? As I stated earlier I have heard of concerns with PC LCD screens leaking white light. You may have to return the screens for another of the same model to find one that doesn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godfrey Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Patrick, I do know people who have top of the line Apple towers jammed with all the memory, all the drives, all the card slots full AND use them to 100% of their capacity. But not doing still photography work ... they're all in video and 3D rendering. :-) Steve, With the Eye One Display 2 and its software, I set the luminance, then tell it to calibrate and profile to 1.8 gamma and 5500K white point, and the software does the rest. Easy as can be, works perfectly every time. Godfrey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_sharf1 Posted February 23, 2007 Author Share Posted February 23, 2007 I would still like to hear from those who wish to have, or who are very content with their PC set-ups, and more from those who can point me to very logical reasons for choosing a Mac over a PC as I am about to buy a computer to work with my Epson 3800. I am currently using a laptop PC with too low memory and power. Photoshop CS2 would be used on either so that is of no concern. Keep in mind I am a long time wet darkroom photographer switching over. Also many thanks to all who have helped so far, particularly Godfrey and Patrick. Your input is very valuable to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godfrey Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Very logical reason for choosing Mac OS X over Windows? ... With the current Apple hardware, you can load and run Mac OS X, Windows XP or Linux all on the same computer to suit your needs. What's not to want about that? Not that I would run anything but Mac OS X myself. It works best for me. ;-) G Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven_clark Posted February 24, 2007 Share Posted February 24, 2007 Personally I use a PC. I may not be using Photoshop but PWP serves me very well. My dream PC for Photoshop right about now would be an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 quad core processor on an NForce 680i chipset MB. A dual-channel pair of 4gig DDR2 (room to spare for later expansion). I'd get a basic OEM lightscribe-capable DVD burner for the optical drive (the run about $35 at Newegg these days). For serious Photoshop performance I'd run anywhere from 3 to 6 500MB drives and not all in one RAID array either. Personally my tastes lean to two drives in RAID 1 mirroring holding the OS and programs (the RAID 1 should allow for concurent read from different places might seriously speed things up), another drive (w/ or wo/ optional mirror drive in RAID) with various secondary partitions (one trick is to map the Documents and Settings folder onto a partition or another drive like here) probably including Documents and Settings and a dedicated swap as well as some storage space, and a third drive for the PS scratch disk and more storage space. Where the swap and sotrage end up could be varied a little along as they're on different drives. I'd pop in a basic GeForce 7300LE or similar mid-low graphics card for Aero capability if you decide to go Vista eventually (gives you dual out while you're at it though one may be VGA only). I'd be sure to get a reasonably beefy Power Supply (500+ watts, maybe more) and from a good manufacturer (Enermax or Antec are good names). Stick that in a case and it should give you a very powerful baseline system to tweak from. Heck if you're a gamer you could even upgrade to SLI graphics with a machine like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven_clark Posted February 24, 2007 Share Posted February 24, 2007 Actually I meant the the Swap and Scratch should end up on different drives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_sharf1 Posted February 24, 2007 Author Share Posted February 24, 2007 Steven: you're being much too technical for me. Remember I'm coming from years of wet darkroom work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
les Posted February 24, 2007 Share Posted February 24, 2007 Well, my approach is simple: I buy latest (almost) and greatest (almost). Usually it sets me back something lik A$6000 or thereabouts, after which I have 5 years of uninterrupted peace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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